Thursday 20th Breakfast, Bruises, Baggage, Blogging,
Bloody Long Walk, Brawl
We started the day with the hotel brekky buffet, which had
sausage and bacon and eggs plus a whole swag of Vietnamese items, some of which
were very interesting and/or tasty. We then set off on one of Janine’s Forced
Marches, starting with a long loop behind the 2 mountains, curling round to the
“Front Beach”, where there was a “tourist” shopping precinct, zigzagging
through that, back round the front of the mountains along the waterfront and
then a deceptively long haul round the point and back to the hotel. By then, it
was pretty hot and we were wilting.
Along the way, we noticed a massage place in a backstreet
and the lady “phoned a friend” (who turned out to be her daughter) to come
round and beat us up. Cupping is obviously popular here because we noticed a
lady last night who was sporting large red circles on her arms and there was
someone in the back room getting it done this morning. Janine thought daughter
was strong until Mama went and double teamed on her neck at the end. Mama was
one of those mature women with a vicelike grip and the knack of getting through
all the overlaying tissues to find delicate bits. Good massages but we both
ended up with visible bruises and it wasn’t a comfortable ride. Our money is
still on the girls from Saigon who did the hard work but made it feel good.
Half way round the shopping district we noticed a luggage shop
and took the opportunity to replace our soft bag on wheels that has been on its
last legs since our Gap Year. We took a negotiating break, during which we went
and took pot luck at a nearby street stall, where we got lucky with sensational
coconut scrolls and a very respectable $1 hamburger with tangy sauce. We enjoy
this pot luck approach and use some caution in choosing where to eat.
The front beach had lovely gardens with statues and topiary
(sculpted trees).
There were fishermen on the beach working on their huge steel
traps and lots of big boats out in the bay. Also lots of restaurants and more
touristy facilities. We toyed with the idea of moving round this side a for a
few more days – the scenery is more interesting and there are better
restaurants but we probably wont get such a good room with a balony. Otherwise
we could go up to the mountains? Don’t know. We have about 4 spare days.
This small island is near our hotel
Christ statue upon hill behind out hotel
Great dragon topiary - Chris wheeling the new bag home
We didn’t really have lunch and sat out the afternoon heat
in our room with a view. I napped while J put the pictures in 3 days blogs and
published them. By sunset we were ready for dinner and wandered down the beach
to a place where we had noticed an interesting menu. Dinner was indifferent and
characterised by a shrieking match between several generations of the family
out front. We had been contemplating another dish but that put the damper on
our digestion, so we wandered back to where we had lunch yesterday and had a
top up there.
Ahoy there you scoundrels
The Black pearl
Interesting club
We finished off the evening watching cable tv, particularly Things We Lost In The
Fire, a quirky film featuring Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro, a vaguely familiar lesser actor
with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. After some time, we noticed that he bore a
striking resemblance to Brad Pitt. Later on, we could see Garry Lyon from the
AFL Footy Show. (photo follows) What do you think - Brad or Garry?
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